Athletic achievement in both individual and team sports continues to improve. Scientifically proven nutrition and training regimes are available to athletes at all levels from personal trainers, specialized coaches, and Internet-based trainers and training programs. In addition, athletic equipment, footwear, and apparel have been developed to offer athletes superior performance as well as a stylish appearance and comfort. Injury treatment has also improved, and some serious injuries that were previously career ending can be treated with techniques that permit nearly complete recovery with only a brief period of rehabilitation. Thus, athletes are fitter, stronger, better trained, better equipped, and better cared for than ever before.
While athletic performance is a direct function of an athlete's physical condition, many sports demand that the athlete accurately perceive and respond to the position and motion (such as velocity, acceleration, deceleration) of teammates, competitors, and sport-specific objects such as footballs, basketballs, baseballs, pucks, or other objects. For example, successful baseball batters or football quarterbacks appear to have superior visual skills, at least with respect to situations encountered in their sports. In order to increase personal performance, athletes have become interested in sensory training as another avenue toward enhanced performance. For example, hitters want to improve their vision so as to be able to see the seams on a 90+ mph fastball or read a pitch type (e.g., ball rotation detection). Thus, athletes are targeting achieving superior visual dexterity to complement their physical dexterity. Unfortunately, available methods for sensory training and assessment are generally not well tailored to the specific skills needed for a selected sport/position, nor are the methods readily configurable to provide the varied training that can be required. Accordingly, improved methods and apparatus are needed for sensory training.